“Seeking good news, please God, on my twin brother Andrew Grene, who works at MINUSTAH (the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti) and was in the meeting with Hedi Annabi, may he rest in peace, when the quake hit.”

Andrew was born in the Chicago but grew up living between County Cavan and the U.S. as a child. He lived on a small farm near Belturbet in County Cavan.

Grene attended the University of Chicago and then went to Trinity College Dublin. He then attended the Medill School of Journalism and won a national journalist award for investigative journalism on patronage in the Illinois court system.

He worked as a speechwriter for the former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali and then moved into peacekeeping strategy.

Grene's father was born in Ireland and became a professor at the University of Chicago. His half brother Nicholas Grene is currently a professor of English at Trinity College Dublin.

Gregory Grene is a twin brother of Andrew, who founded the Celtic rock band The Prodigals. His mother Ethel is an emergency room doctor and is American born and bred.

Gregory said the family were anxiously waiting for news and were feeling "simply on edge in a way that words cannot fathom".

Grene is married to County Down native Jennifer and has three teenage children.